Your First Multisite Facility

Churches around the world are leveraging technology to create multi-site campuses for greater ministry reach. The transition from single site to multi-site can be bumpy at best if not done with careful prayer and planning. What technology do you use to share your weekend experience? How do you find and secure a facility for your new multi-site campus? What type of financing and staff do you need in place to support a new multi-site facility?

Learn from other multi-site churches

Making the switch to multi-site starts with learning from other churches further down the road than you. There are churches across the U.S. who are constantly transforming the multi-site experience on a weekly basis. Check out Outreach Magazine and Multisite Church Revolution to learn more about multi-site ministry from other churches’ experience.

Find the right technology for your multi-site

Your first multi-site experience may not be a physical location, but an online campus. If you’re planning on a physical campus for your multi-site, you need to consider whether you will live-stream your weekend services (strongly recommended), or have a one-week tape-delay for all your campuses. Many multi-site churches begin new campuses with a taped message while the campus works to get other parts of operation and ministry working well, such as children’s ministry, parking teams, guest relations, and live music.

Highly reliable and secure network connections between campuses is a must-have for multi-site churches considering live-stream options. Video broadcast options are also worth researching to continue the mission of reaching others in your community for the Gospel. Whatever options you consider, you should plan on growing with technology to increase your ministry outreach.

Be creative with finding your new facility

What type of facility do you need to host a multi-site campus? You probably need additional space for children’s ministry, lobby space, and even some storage for equipment. A comedy club, movie theater, auditorium, school, gymnasium, even a plain large room with higher ceilings can make a great facility for a multi-site venue. Get creative with thinking about the possibilities! As we’ve mentioned before, we highly recommend only considering multi-site if you have 150 people willing to help launch the new location.

If you’re considering a multi-site expansion facility, our Development Advisors team is here to serve you. Development Advisors works with local churches to create strategic facility expansion plans, including multi-site facility expansion. We are a full-service commercial real estate development organization committed to serving churches. This vision aligns with our principals’ personal values as followers of Jesus Christ.

Development Advisors provides a variety of services, including strategic planning, financial feasibility, site or building selection, capital campaign direction , financing (as owner’s representative), project team selection, project and construction management (also as owner’s representative), FF&E and AVL procurement specialists, and relocation coordination, as needed.

Our Development Advisors team is here to serve you and answer any questions you may have when it comes to both single-site and multisite church facility expansion.